I lifted up my eyes, and saw, and behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand. Then I asked, “Where are you going?” He said to me, “To measure Jerusalem, to see what is its width and what is its length.”
Behold, the angel who talked with me went out, and another angel went out to meet him, and said to him, “Run, speak to this young man, saying, ‘Jerusalem will be inhabited as villages without walls, because of the multitude of men and livestock in it. For I,’ says Yahweh, ‘will be to her a wall of fire around it, and I will be the glory in the middle of her. Come! Come! Flee from the land of the north,’ says Yahweh; ‘for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the sky,’ says Yahweh. ‘Come, Zion! Escape, you who dwell with the daughter of Babylon.’ For Yahweh of Armies says: ‘For honor he has sent me to the nations which plundered you; for he who touches you touches the apple of his eye. For, behold, I will shake my hand over them, and they will be a plunder to those who served them; and you will know that Yahweh of Armies has sent me. Sing and rejoice, daughter of Zion; for, behold, I come, and I will dwell within you,’ says Yahweh. Many nations shall join themselves to Yahweh in that day, and shall be my people; and I will dwell among you, and you shall know that Yahweh of Armies has sent me to you. Yahweh will inherit Judah as his portion in the holy land, and will again choose Jerusalem. Be silent, all flesh, before Yahweh; for he has roused himself from his holy habitation!”
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 Added now is another vision for the same end;…
Added now is another vision for the same end; not that the former was difficult to be understood, but because there was need of confirmation in a state of things so disturbed; for though the return of the people was no common evidence of the goodness and favor of God yet as Jerusalem was not flourishing as formerly, as the temple was like a cottage as there was no form of a kingdom and no grandeur, it was difficult to believe what had been already exhibited. This is the reason why God confirms by many proofs the same thing; for we know how difficult the contest is, owing to the infirmity of the flesh, when grievous and sharp trials assail us.
Hence Zechariah says, that he saw in the hand of a man a measuring line. He calls him a man, who appeared in the form of man; and it is well known, and a common thing, that angels are called men. For though they put on a human form only for a time, yet as it was the Lord’s will that they should be seen in that form, they are called men, though with no propriety. If it be asked, whether angels did really put on human nature? the obvious answer is, that they never, strictly speaking, became really men. But we know that God treats us as children; and there is the same reason for the expression as for the thing itself. How was it that angels appeared in human form? even that their access to men might be easier. Hence God calls them men as in this place. Zechariah then says, that an angel appeared to him in the form of a man, having in his hand a measuring line.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 This is the Angel who was Christ: for in…
This is the Angel who was Christ: for in respect of his office he is ofttimes called an Angel, but in respect of his eternal essence, is God, and so called.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–13 Zec 2:1 I lifted up mine eyes again, and…
Zec 2:1 I lifted up mine eyes again, and looked, and behold a man with a measuring line in his hand.
Ver. 1. I lifted up mine eyes again, and looked] i.e. I looked wistfully, not sluggishly, as between sleeping and waking, as Zec 4:1. I saw further by the spirit than common sense could have carried me. I beheld Jerusalem in her future glory, I looked intently, I took aim, not by the things which are seen, but by the things which are not seen, 2Co 4:18 Heb 11:27 Gal 4:26.
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And behold a man] The man Christ Jesus, as his mother is called a virgin, Isa 7:14, the virgin, that famous virgin that conceived and bare a son, that got a man from the Lord, Gen 4:1. This man (called before and after an angel, as appearing in human shape) is here seen and set forth as an architect or master builder, going to take the plot of his Church, see Rev 21:15; and observe, by the way, how in that book the Holy Ghost borrows the allegories and elegancies of the Old Testament to set out the story of the New in succeeding ages.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1–13 I, Zechariah,
I, Zechariah,
lifted up mine eyes again: this is the third emblem or vision he had seen. Looked very diligently and intently.
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A man; one in form of a man; some say it was Christ, others say a type of Nehemiah; it was an emblem of some master-builder to be sure, and it is probable the prophet took him for no more than a man.
With a measuring line in his hand; he appeared ready and prepared to lay out the platform of Jerusalem for extent, form, and beauty,
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 6, 10 This prophet was ordered, in God's name, to assure…
This prophet was ordered, in God's name, to assure the people (Zac 1:16) that a line should be stretched forth upon Jerusalem. Now here we have that promise illustrated and confirmed, that the prophet might deliver that part of his message to the people with the more clearness and assurance.
I. He sees, in a vision, a man going to measure Jerusalem (Zac 2:1, Zac 2:2): He lifted up his eyes again, and looked. God had shown him that which was very encouraging to him, (Zac 1:20), and therefore now he lifted up his eyes again and looked. Note, The comfortable sights which by faith we have had of God's goodness made to pass before us should engage us to lift up our eyes again, and to search further into the discoveries made to us of the divine grace; for there is still more to be seen. In the close of the foregoing chapter he had seen Jerusalem's enemies baffled and broken, so that now he begins to hope she shall not be ruined. But that is not enough to make her happy, and therefore that is not all that is promised. Here is more carpenter's work to be done. When David had resolved to cut off the horns of the wicked he engaged likewise that the horns of the righteous should be exalted, Psa 75:10. And so does the Son of David here; for he is the man, even the man Christ Jesus, whom the prophet sees with a measuring line in his hand; for he is the master builder of his church (Heb 3:3), and he builds exactly by line and level. Zechariah took the boldness to ask him whither he was going and what he designed to do with that measuring line. And he readily told him that he was going to measure Jerusalem, to take a particular account of the dimensions of it each way, that it might be computed what was necessary for the making of a wall about it, and that it might appear, by comparing its dimensions with the vast numbers that should inhabit it, what additions were necessary to be made for the receiving and containing of them; when multitudes flock to Jerusalem (Isa 60:4) it is time for her to enlarge the place of her tent, Isa 54:2. Note, God takes notice of the extent of his church, and will take care that, when ever so many guests are brought in to the wedding supper, still there shall be room, Luk 14:22. In the New Jerusalem, my Father's house above, there are many mansions.
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II. He is informed that this vision means well to Jerusalem, that the measuring line he saw was not a line of confusion (as that Isa 34:11), not a line to mete out for destruction, as when God purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion he stretched out a line (Lam 2:8); but it is as when he divided the inheritance by line, Psa 78:55. The angel that talked with the prophet went forth, as he designed, to measure Jerusalem, but another angel went out to meet him, to desire that he would first explain this vision to the prophet, that it might not occasion him any uneasy speculations: Run, and speak to this young man (for, it seems, the prophet entered upon his prophecy when he was young, yet no man ought to despise his youth when God thus highly honoured it); he is a young man, not experienced, and may be ready to fear the worst; therefore bid him hope the best; tell him that Jerusalem shall be both safe and great, 1. As safe and great as numbers of men can make it (Zac 2:4): Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls; the inhabitants of it shall increase, and multiply, and replenish it to admiration, so that it shall extend itself far beyond the present dimensions which now there is an account taken of. The walls of a city, as they defend it, so they straiten and confine it, and keep its inhabitants from multiplying beyond such a pitch; but Jerusalem, even when it is walled, to keep off the enemy, shall be inhabited as towns without walls. The city shall be in a manner lost in the suburbs, as London is, where the out-parishes are more populous than those within the walls. So shall it be with Jerusalem; it shall be extended as freely as if it had no walls at all, and yet shall be as safe as if it had the strongest walls, such a multitude of men (which are the best walls of a city) shall there be therein, and of cattle too, to be not only food, but wealth too, for those men. Note, The increase of the numbers of a people is a great blessing, is a fruit of God's blessing on them and an earnest of further blessings, Psa 107:38. They are multiplied, for he blesses them. 2. As safe and great as the presence of God can make it, Zac 2:5. (1.) It shall be safe, for God himself will be a wall of fire round about it. Jerusalem had no walls about it at this time, but lay naked and exposed; formerly, when it had walls, the enemies not only broke through them, but broke them down; but now God will be unto her a wall of fire. Some think it alludes to shepherds that made fires about their flocks, or travellers that made fires about their tents in desert places, to frighten wild beasts from them. God will not only make a hedge about them as he did about Job (Zac 1:10), not only make walls and bulwarks about them, Isa 26:1 (those may be battered down), not only be as the mountains round about them, Psa 125:2 (mountains may be got over), but he will be a wall of fire round them, which cannot be broken through, nor scaled, nor undermined, nor the foundations of it sapped, nor can it be attempted, or approached, without danger to the assailants. God will not only make a wall of fire about her, but he will himself be such a wall; for our God is a consuming fire to his and his church's enemies. He is a wall of fire, not on one side only, but round about on every side. (2.) It shall be great, for God himself will be the glory in the midst of it. His temple, his altar, shall be set up and attended there, and his institutions observed, and there then shall the tokens of his special presence and favour be, which will be the glory in the midst of them, will make them truly admirable in the eyes of all about them. God will have honour from them, and put honour upon them. Note, Those that have God for their God have him for their glory; those that have him in the midst of them have glory in the midst of them, and thence the church is said to be all glorious within. And those persons and places that have God to be the glory in the midst of them have him for a wall of fire round about them, for upon all that glory there is, and shall be, a defence, Isa 4:5. Now all this was fulfilled in part in Jerusalem, which in process of time became a very flourishing city, and made a very great figure in those parts of the world, much beyond what could have been expected, considering how low it was brought and how long it was ere it recovered itself; but it was to have its full accomplishment in the gospel-church, which is extended far, as towns without walls, by the admission of the Gentiles into it, and which has God, the Son of God, for its prince and protector.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–13 I lifted up mine eyes again, and looked,.... And…
I lifted up mine eyes again, and looked,.... And saw a third vision; which, as Kimchi owns, refers to the times of the Messiah; though it might be of use to the Jews then present, to encourage them to expect the rebuilding of Jerusalem, in a literal sense:
and behold a man with a measuring line in his hand: by whom is meant, not Nehemiah, nor Zerubbabel; see Zac 4:10 who were concerned in the building of Jerusalem; nor any mere man, nor even a created angel; for, though he may be the same with the other angel, that did not talk with the prophet, Zac 2:3 as Kimchi observes; seeing he seems to be superior to him that did; yet not a ministering spirit, but the Messiah, who in this book is often spoken of as a man; See Gill on Zac 1:8 and by "the measuring line in his hand" may be meant eternal predestination, the Lamb's book of life, which is in his keeping; and is the measure and rule by which he proceeds in the calling, justification, and glorification of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven; or the Scriptures of truth, the measure and rule of doctrine, discipline, worship, and conversation; and according to which Christ forms, constitutes, and regulates Gospel churches; see Eze 40:3.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1–13 A vision signifying the prosperous state of Jerusalem, ver.…
A vision signifying the prosperous state of Jerusalem, ver. 1-5. An exhortation to the Jews, to hasten into their own land, ver. 6-9. Encouragement to them that were returned, and advice to wait patiently for God, ver. 10-13.
With a line - Ready and prepared to lay out the platform of Jerusalem.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 The vision with which this chapter opens, portended great
CHAPTER II
The vision with which this chapter opens, portended great
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increase and prosperity to Jerusalem. Accordingly Josephus
tells us, (Wars v. iv. 2,) that "the city, overflowing with
inhabitants, extended beyond its walls," as predicted in the
fourth verse, and acquired much glory during the time of the
Maccabees; although these promises, and particularly the
sublime image in the fifth verse, has certainly a still more
pointed reference to the glory and prosperity of the Christian
Church in the latter days, 1-5. See Re 21:1-27; Re 22:1-21.
In consequence of these promises, the Jews, still inhabiting
Babylon and the regions round about, are called upon to hasten
home, that they might not be involved in the fate of their
enemies, who were destined to fall a prey to the nations which
they had formerly subdued; God's great love anti zeal for his
people moving him to glorify them by humbling all their
adversaries, 6-9.
The most gracious promises of God's presence with his Church,
and her consequent increase and prosperity, set forth in the
remaining verses, 10-13,
were to a certain extent fulfilled in the great number of
proselytes made to Judaism after the return from the captivity;
but shall be more fully accomplished after the restoration of
the Jews to the favour of God under the Gospel. "For if the
casting away of the natural Israel be the reconciling of the
world, what shall the receiving of them be but life from the
dead?"
NOTES ON CHAP II
Verse 1. A man with a measuring - line in his hand.] Probably a representation of Nehemiah, who got a commission from Artaxerxes Longimanus to build up the walls of Jerusalem; for hitherto it had remained without being enclosed.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 6, 10, 13 Zec 2:1-5. I lifted up mine eyes, &c., and…
Zec 2:1-5. I lifted up mine eyes, &c., and behold a man — An angel in the form of a man, probably representing Nehemiah, under whose direction the wall was rebuilt, according to the ancient line marked out by the ruins. See Nehemiah 3., &c, &c. And the angel that talked with me went forth — Went away from me, as if he had performed his commission in regard to me, and was to commune with me no longer. And another angel went out to meet him — But, as he was going away, I saw another angel meet him. This appears to have been an angel sent with fresh commands, from the superior personage among the myrtle-trees, to the angel who communed with the prophet. And said, Run, speak to this young man — Hasten with all diligence, and communicate to the young and inexperienced prophet what will check his fears, and encourage him to proceed in the execution of his prophetic office. Saying, Jerusalem — Which hath so long lain in ruins, and seemed to be in a hopeless state, shall be inhabited as towns, &c. — Shall overflow with inhabitants, who shall occupy spaces beyond the circuit of the walls: that is, its inhabitants will multiply so fast, that the houses within the walls will not be able to contain them, and they will be obliged to seek habitations in the neighbouring country in villages, which shall be of as great extent as towns, which, although without walls, shall be safe and secure against the attacks of enemies; their own multitude of men being a sufficient defence to them. And their cattle will increase in proportion. That this was a fact with regard to Jerusalem, see Josephus, De Bell. Jud., lib. 5. chap. 4, where we learn that “the city, overflowing with its number of inhabitants, by degrees extended itself beyond its walls;” and that Herod Agrippa fortified the new part called Bezetha. For I, saith the Lord, will be unto her a wall of fire — Which cannot be scaled or undermined, as it would soon consume any that might attempt to do the one or the other. Thus, in regard to her inhabiting without walls, God engages to secure her as effectually as if she were surrounded with a wall of fire. “The image is most sublime, and expresses very strongly the protection of God. It must have reminded the Jews of the pillar of fire by which God directed and defended their ancestors.” — Newcome. He says, Round about, to signify that no part should be left unguarded, or open to the enemy. And will be the glory in the midst of her — My presence and favour shall render her glorious. He alludes to the symbol of the divine presence in the holy of holies. Observe, reader, those that have Jehovah for their God have him for their glory: and they that have him in the midst of them have glory in the midst of them. And all those persons and places that have God in the midst of them, have him for a wall of fire round about them; for upon all that glory, there is, and shall be, a defence, Isa 4:5. This prophecy was fulfilled in part in that Jerusalem, which, in process of time, became a very flourishing city, and made a very great figure in those parts of the world, much beyond what could have been expected, considering how low it had been brought, and how long it was before it recovered itself. But it was to have its full accomplishment in the gospel church, which is extended far, like towns without walls, by the admission of the Gentiles into it; and which hath the Son of God, and God himself, for its prince and protector.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 A man with a measuring line in his hand…
A man with a measuring line in his hand - Probably the Angel of the Lord, of whom Ezekiel has a like vision. Jerome: “He who before, when he lift up his eyes, had seen in the four horns things mournful, now again lifts up his eves to see a man, of whom it is written, “Behold a man whose name is the Branch” Zec 6:12; of whom we read above, “Behold a man riding upon a red horse, and he stood among the myrtle trees, which were in the bottom” Zec 1:8. Of whom too the Father saith; He builded My city, “whose builder and maker is God” Heb 11:10. He too is seen by Ezekiel in a description like this, “a man whose appearance was like the appearance of brass” Eze 40:3, that is, “burnished and shining as fire, with a line of flax in his hand and a measuring reed” Eze 1:7. The office also seems to be one of authority, not to measure the actual length and breadth of Jerusalem, but to lay down what it should be, (Cyril), “to mark it out broad and very long.”
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, 13 Another. The angel who measured spoke to Michael. (Calmet)
Another. The angel who measured spoke to Michael. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 Zechariah 2
VISION III. THE MAN WITH THE MEASURING LINE
Zechariah 2
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A. A Man with a Measuring Line, and its Meaning (Zec_2:1-5). B. Further Promises (Zec_2:6-13)
And 1I lifted up my eyes1 and saw, and behold, a man, and in his hand a measuring-line. 2 And I said, Whither goest thou? And he said to me, To measure Jerusalem, to see what is its breadth and what its length. 3 And behold the angel 4 that talked with me came forth and another angel went forth to meet him, And said to him, Run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall lie as open country2 for the multitude of men and cattle in the midst of her.
5 And I will be to her, saith Jehovah, a wall of fire around,
And for glory will I be in the midst of her.
6 Ho! ho! flee out of the land of the north, saith Jehovah,
For as3 the four winds of heaven have I scattered you, saith Jehovah.
7 Ho!4 Zion, save thyself,
Thou that dwellest with5 the daughter of Babylon.
8 For thus saith Jehovah of Hosts,
After glory hath He sent me to the nations that plundered you,
For he that toucheth you toucheth the apple6 of his7 eye.
9 For behold, I swing my hand over them,
And they shall become a spoil to their own servants,
And ye shall know that Jehovah of Hosts hath sent me.
10 Shout and rejoice, O daughter of Zion,
For, behold, I come, and dwell in the midst of thee, saith Jehovah,
11 And many nations shall join themselves8 to Jehovah in that day,
And become a people to me,
And I will dwell in the midst of thee,
And thou shalt know that Jehovah of Hosts hath sent me to thee.
12 And Jehovah shall take Judah as his portion in the holy land,
And shall yet9 choose Jerusalem.
13 Be still, all flesh, before Jehovah,
For He has risen up from his holy habitation.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
As the second vision represented the destruction of Israel’s foes, the third makes an advance by setting forth the enlargement and security of the Covenant people. (a.) Zec_2:1-5 contain the symbol; (b.), Zec_2:6-13 the fuller explanation of its meaning, namely, the despoiling of the nations (Zec_2:6-9), the indwelling of Jehovah in Zion (Zec_2:10), and the ingathering of many nations (Zec_2:11-13).
(a.) The Symbol and its General Sense (Zec_2:1-5). Zec_2:1-2. And I lifted up my eyes. … what its length. The prophet sees a man with a measuring-line in his hand advancing upon the scene, and he asks whither he is going. The answer is that he is about to measure the length and breadth of Jerusalem. This man is not to be identified with the interpreting angel (Rosenmüller, Maurer, etc.), for the latter is plainly distinguished from him in Zec_2:3; nor does the passage furnish any reason for regarding him as the Angel of the Lord (Keil, Hengstenberg, etc.). He is rather simply a person introduced to perform the symbolical action of the vision, and having done this, he passes out of view. His mission is to ascertain by measurement the present size of Jerusalem, with a view to its prospective indefinite enlargement. This view is not stated by him. but is clearly to be inferred from Zec_2:4, and the general tenor of the chapter.
Zec_2:3. After the measuring angel has gone away to do his office, behold, i. e., the prophet sees “the angel that talked with me” coming forth, i. e., from the back-ground of the scene, and probably, as Köhler suggests, from the direction in which the measuring angel had disappeared. Before, however, the interpreting angel can either address or be addressed by the prophet, he is met by a third angel coming from the opposite direction. The character of this third angel is not further described, but from the tone of authority, “Run, speak,” etc., and from Zec_2:8-9, it seems not unlikely that he is the Angel of the Lord (Neumann, Pressel, etc.). There are no data for a positive opinion.
Zec_2:4. And said to him. The subject here can only be, whether grammatically or logically, the third angel. His direction tells the angelus interpres to do just what his function required. This young man=the prophet himself, as most of the earlier and later expositors conceive. Zechariah is thus styled because of his age, and not, as Jerome, Vitringa, and Hengstenberg think, because of his subordinate relation to the angels, which is nowhere else thus expressed. Run, because it is good news. The substance of the good news is that Jerusalem is to have a vast influx of men and cattle, so that it shall no longer be confined by narrow walls and fixed limits, but be spread out like the open country. Cf. Isa_49:19-20.
Zec_2:5. And I will be to her, etc. But it might be feared that great danger would result from this unwalled extension. This is met by the promise that Jehovah would be a wall of fire around, perhaps in allusion to the pillar of fire in the wilderness (cf. Isa_4:5). The fire would consume every invader. There should be, however, not only protection without, but glory within. This splendor is to arise from the manifested presence of God (cf. Isa_60:19). The full force of this promise is to be gathered from the following verses.
(b.) Fuller Explanation of the Symbol (Zec_2:6-13). Zec_2:6-7. Ho, ho, flee out. … daughter of Babylon. An assurance of Jehovah’s presence and blessing with his people is given in the announcement of judgment upon Babylon; and this is expressed very strikingly in the form of a summons to the Jews still remaining in the Chaldæan capital to flee away in haste lest they should be overtaken by the coming storm. There were, no doubt, many Jews who, because of age or infirmities or ties of property, preferred to remain in Babylon rather than risk the hardships of the restoration; but the call of the text seems intended not so much for their benefit as to show to the desponding people in Palestine how severe a blow impended over their former oppressors. Land of the north. Babylon was so called because armies and caravans coming thence to Jerusalem entered the Holy Land from the north For as the four winds, etc., assigns the reason why such a return was possible. God had scattered Israel not to the four winds, but as them, i. e., with a violence and fury such as would result from the combined force of all the winds of heaven. Keil’s explanation of פָרַשׂ as=a beneficent diffusion, is not sustained by the usage of the verb, and is against the context. Ho! Zion! etc. Zion stands for the inhabitants of Zion, i. e., the people of God, who are now still dwelling with the daughter of Babylon, i. e., the people of that city personified as a woman (Psa_9:14; Psa_137:8).
Zec_2:8-9. Further reason of the call to flee from Babylon. After glory. Gesenius, Maurer, and others strangely construe this, He hath sent me after glory, in the sense of with a view to acquire it. This is quite inadmissible, not because אַחַר is not used as a preposition (Moore), for it is often so employed, but because it is never construed with a verb of motion in this sense, and the verb in the text has its appropriate object and preposition immediately following. We must therefore, following the LXX. and the Vulgate, render “after glory”=after the bestowment of the glory stated in Zec_2:5. The speaker was sent to these plundering nations to execute God’s judgments upon them. The reason for this mission is announced in the last clause of the verse by a beautiful and touching image, borrowed from Psa_17:8; cf. Deu_32:10. The apple, literally, the gate, through which light enters the eye, hence=pupil. The pupil or apple of the eye is a proverbial type of that which is at once most precious and most easily injured, and which therefore has a double claim to the most careful protection. The pronominal suffix his is to be referred to Jehovah, and not to the enemy himself.
Zec_2:9. For, behold. … servants, furnishes an additional explanation of the sending after glory. The Angel of the Lord would swing his hand (cf. Isa_11:15; Isa_19:16), as a gesture of menace or a symbol of miraculous power, over the nations, so that they should become—וְהָיוּ expresses consequence—a spoil to the Israelites, who had before been obliged to serve them. A close parallel is found in Isa_14:2. And ye shall know. … sent me. By the execution of this judgment it would be made clear to Israel that Jehovah had sent his angel. They would know the fact not only by faith, but by experience.
Zec_2:10-12. The people are summoned to rejoice over the Lord’s indwelling and its happy results. Behold, I come. The glorification is about to commence. Jehovah comes to Zion to take up his abode, and this is the pledge of all conceivable blessedness The close resemblance of the language used here to that in Zec_9:9, suggests that both refer to the same, form of Jehovah’s tabernacling with men, namely, the incarnation. Even Kimchi refers the passage to “future events in the times of the Messiah.” This is further confirmed by the next verse. And many nations, etc. The Kingdom of God, instead of being confined to Israel, will be enlarged by the reception of numerous heathen peoples (Zec_8:20-21; Isa_2:3; Isa_16:1; Mic_4:2). The two latter clauses of this verse are emphatic repetitions of what has been said in the same words in Zec_2:9-10.
Zec_2:12. And Jehovah will take, etc. The speaker reverts to the ancient declaration, Deu_32:9, “Jehovah’s portion is his people, Jacob the lot of his inheritance,” and announces its complete fulfillment through the coming of the Lord. The holy land is of course, Palestine, but only in the first instance. Wherever the people of God are found, there is the holy land. Israel is to overflow by the large additions made to it, so that its original territory will be too small. The new aggregate shall inherit all the blessings promised to the original chosen nation. The same thought is conveyed in the other member of the parallelism.
Zec_2:13 furnishes a sublime close to the chapter. Be still … habitation. All flesh is summoned to wait in reverential silence the coming of the Lord to his work, and the reason assigned is that it is soon to begin. For Jehovah has risen up from his holy habitation, which is heaven (cf. Deu_26:15; 2Ch_30:27). Illustrative parallels of the sentiment are found in Psa_76:8-9 : “The earth feared and was still, when God arose to judgment, to save all the meek of the earth,” and Zep_1:7 : “Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord God, for the day of the Lord is at hand.” Here the contrast is emphatic between men, even all of them, who are but flesh, and the everliving Jehovah. Calvin thinks that the temple rather than heaven is meant by the holy habitation, and that the point is, that even from that desolated place, exposed to the derision of the ungodly, God would come forth to judgment. But it is better to adhere to the usual meaning of the expression, and to understand the contrast as being between God rising up in heaven, and all flesh on the earth. The divine majesty has seemed to be asleep, but now it is roused up; let men therefore beware.
THEOLOGICAL AND MORAL
1. Pressel justly remarks that although at first view this vision appears to resemble those which were received by Ezekiel (Eze_40:3 ff.), and John (Rev_11:1), yet in reality it is very different. In the latter cases the imagery seems to have a fixed and definite meaning, however difficult it may be to ascertain and state that meaning; in the former the symbolical action is of the simplest kind, and serves merely to give vividness to the subsequent oral statement. Whenever a house or a city is to be enlarged, the first step is to make an adequate survey of the existing buildings. The divine condescension uses this preliminary measurement outwardly represented, as a token of a future indefinite expansion which would leave the surveyor’s lines far in the rear as a thing of the past. The entire chapter is an admirable illustration of the germinant nature of prophecy. In its primary aspect it met directly the situation of the Prophet’s contemporaries and animated them to new zeal and hope in their endeavors to restore the national capital, and reëstablish the former civil and ecclesiastical institutions. Yet it manifestly cannot be restricted to this. The incorporation of many nations with the Jews, as set forth in Zec_2:11, had no counterpart in the actual experience of the Jewish commonwealth as such. It was fulfilled only in the rapid and general diffusion of the Gospel by which multitudes of the heathen were turned from dumb idols to serve the living God. Yet the prophet passes without a break from the narrower to the larger scope of his prediction. They to whom it was first given may have found it difficult to see the exact nexus of events; but to us who live at a time when Providence has interpreted promise, it is easy to trace the way in which the Spirit leads Zechariah from a temporary act of consolation to a declaration which sets forth one of the chief glories of Messiah’s blessed reign. The narrow walls of the Mosaic forms were to be thrown down, and the church’s limits extended to those who were then far beyond those boundaries. Moore speaks of it as at least a curious coincidence that when this enlargement did take place the centres of population were the first to experience the blessing, and so the dwellers in villages (pagani) became synonymous with those who still remained in heathenism; but at last the Gospel reached and converted those very paganos (pagans); and then in very deed Jerusalem inhabited the villages or was spread out as the open country.
2. The twofold blessing of Jehovah to his Church. Nowhere even in Scripture is this set forth with so much beauty and force as in the concise statement that He is a wall of fire without and a glory within. What deep moats or massive walls or elaborate defenses are comparable to a circle of flame, fed by no human hands, ensuring destruction to the assailant before he can even reach the presence of those he seeks to attack? The Psalmist uses a striking figure when he says (Psa_125:2), “As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about his people from henceforth even forever.” But the hills which arose around Jerusalem might be scaled, or commanded from a still higher elevation. Not so with devouring fire; that is an impassable barrier. The promise then is complete; all that is needed is faith to appropriate it. As Luther says, “If we were surrounded by walls of steel and fire, we would feel secure, and defy the devil. But the property of faith is not to be proud of what the eye sees but of what the word reveals.” The one prayer suitable for times of darkness or despondency, is that of the disciples, Lord, increase our faith.
But the assurance of Jehovah is not only for outward, but also for inward wants, and that in a most remarkable and comprehensive way. He Himself will be for a glory within. As the Psalmist says, God is in the midst of her. Zion’s true boast is not in buildings or services, in music or eloquence, in numbers or popularity, but in the manifested presence of her great Head. If his Holy Spirit reveal his power in cheering the bowed down, in sanctifying the afflicted, in quickening penitence, prayerfulness, holy living, and the usual expressions of a gracious character, in calling dead sinners from their living tombs, in elevating the general tone of piety, in renewing the lost image in which man was originally created, then there is glory far, far beyond what earth can give. The Psalmist said (Psa_102:16), “When the Lord shall build up Zion, He will appear in glory.” We may reverently reverse the clauses, and affirm that when He appears in glory, Zion shall be built up. Let Him come when He will and as He will, his presence is enough.
3. God’s people are unspeakably dear to Him. They are like the apple of his eye. He chooses them as his portion, He guards them as his jewels. The pupil of the eye is peculiarly delicate and sensitive. It is not necessary to pierce it with a knife to make the owner shrink; a mote, or even a touch will startle and grieve. So the blessed Lord feels toward those whom He has chosen and called. In all their affliction He is afflicted. When Jesus remonstrated with Saul of Tarsus for his furious enmity toward the infant Church, the language was, “Why persecutest thou me?” Every blow, struck at the least or humblest member of the body, reaches its invisible but glorious head. In like manner whatever is done for the people of God is regarded by God as done for Himself. He “is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love which ye have showed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints and do minister” (Heb_6:10). This is not the estimate of the world at large. They look down upon believers as deluded visionaries, or at best amiable enthusiasts, while sometimes the carnal heart finds expression in much harsher terms. So much the more necessary is it to remember the Lord’s judgment in the case, and to feel and act toward those who bear the Christian name and walk accordingly, as to those who, whatever their outward surroundings, are loved by their Lord with an affection beyond what even a mother bears to the son of her womb.
The whole history of the Church is a comment upon this utterance. From the time of its institution in the household of Abraham, when latent in Egypt, wandering in the desert, militant in Canaan, triumphant in Jerusalem, captive in Babylon, oppressed under the Syrians and Romans, it was sustained by heavenly food, by visions and inspirations, by miracles and portents, by God’s effective support on the right hand and the left. Afterwards, when revived and renewed by the personal ministry and blessed sacrifice of the Lord Jesus, it was brought into still closer fellowship with the Most High, fitted for unlimited diffusion, proclaimed to all the world, and established alike among the loftiest and the lowliest of the earth. And though tried in every possible way by malice and envy, it was only purged by suffering, confirmed and rooted by the storms of persecution, and protected against all the powers of earth and hell by an arm which even the blind may see belongs to none but the living God.
4. The introduction of nations into the fellowship of the people of God is one of the grand peculiarities of the later dispensation. In earlier days the Church was far less restrictive that it is often supposed to have been. Not a few outside of the chosen line obtained entrance to the community. Not only Hobab, and Rahab, and Ruth, and Gittai, but many others found a home in Zion; still in all cases they were required to leave their original home, to forget their father’s house, and transplant themselves to the seat of the theocracy. But now the good news goes to the heathen instead of their coming to it. The various tribes and families whom God so carefully separated (Act_17:26), although they were of one blood, still retain their distinct national existence, but on receiving the Gospel are counted as seed of the promise. A very remarkable Psalm (Psa_87:4) speaks of these collective bodies as subjects of regeneration. “I will mention Rahab and Babylon as knowing me. Lo, Philistia and Tyre with Ethiopia. (As to each of these it shall be said,) This one was born there.” These ruling powers among the heathen, most of them hereditary enemies of Israel, are given as samples of the whole Gentile world. Not individuals, alone, but whole nations are to experience a spiritual birth, and in consequence join themselves to Jehovah. Not by force of outward compulsion, but by the power of an inward conviction. The flocks of Kedar and the rams of Nebaioth with good will (or of their own accord) ascend the altar of Jehovah (Isa_60:7). It is of course true that conversions are effected individually and not en masse, but these are to be so multiplied that a little one becomes a thousand, and a small one a strong nation. The history of modern missions has furnished repeated instances in which a whole people has been revolutionized and made as distinctively Christian as it before had been heathen. It needs only a farther development of divine grace in the same direction to fill out in reality the most glowing pictures sketched on the prophetic canvass.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Pressel: A fine illustration of the defense which Jehovah is to his people is furnished in the experience of a widow who alone with her daughter occupied a house standing by itself in the direct way of the Russian army on its march to Schleswick, and comforted her weeping, despairing daughter with the assurance that the Lord could and would protect them from all harm. The same night a heavy fall of snow so covered all approaches to the house that when the army marched on the next day it was not visited or apparently seen by even one of the licentious soldiery. A wall of snow was as effectual as a wall of fire.
Moore: The true glory of the Church is not in any external pomp or power of any kind. Her outward rites and ceremonies, therefore, should only be what the earth’s atmosphere is to the rays of the sun,—a pure, transparent medium of transmission.
—Delay of punishment is no proof of impunity. God often seems asleep when He is only awaiting the appointed time; but in the end, when all seems as it was from the foundation of the world, the herald cry shall go forth, Be silent, O earth, for Jehovah is roused to his terrible work, and the day of his wrath is come.
Jay: If God regards his people so kindly and is so jealous for their welfare (Zec_2:8), it becomes them on the other hand to be equally concerned for his cause and his glory. We are to regard his Word as we keep the tenderest part of the tenderest member of our body. He says, “Keep my commandments and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye” (Pro_7:2).
Hodge: I will dwell in the midst of thee (Zec_2:5; Zec_2:10-11). God is said to dwell wherever He specially and permanently manifests his presence. And since He thus specially and permanently manifests his presence in his people collectively and individually, He is said to dwell in all and in each. … The human soul is said to be full of God when its inward state, its affections and acts are determined and controlled by Him, so as to be a constant manifestation of the divine presence. Then it is pure, and glorious, and free, and blessed. …. There is unspeakably more in the promises of God than we are able to understand.
Footnotes:
[1]Zec_2:1.—There is nothing in Hebrew to correspond to the “again” in the E. V.
[2]Zec_2:4.—פּרָזוֹת, lit=plains, here denotes open level ground, in contrast with walled and fortified cities. See the full expression in Eze_38:11.
[3]Zec_2:6.—The various reading ב in כְאַר׳׳, is sustained by a number of MSS. and the Vulgate, but is inferior to the Textus Receptus.
[4]Zec_2:7.—This verse begins with the same interjection, הוֹי, which occurs at the beginning of the preceding verse, and should be so rendered, and not confounded, as in the E. V., with the mere sign of the vocative.
[5]Zec_2:7.—יַשָׁב, construed directly with the accusative, is found also in Psa_22:4, 2Sa_6:2.
[6]Zec_2:8.—בֽבַת. The prevailing opinion derives this from בוּב or נָבַב, and makes it=entrance, or gate to the eye, its centre-point.
[7]Zec_2:8.— The reading עֵינִי, though given in several MSS. and sustained by the Vulgate, appears to be due to a copyist’s correction.
[8]Zec_2:11.—The reflexive sense of the Niphal in נִלְררּ is much more suitable and expressive than the simple passive.
[9]Zec_2:12.—עוֹד, in the same connection, in Zec_1:17, is rendered in E. V. yet, while here it appears as again. It is better rendered yet in both places, the sense being not that God will make a new choice, but that He will demonstrate again in actual experience his old choice. Psa_78:68; Psa_87:2.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 To measure Jerusalem--(Compare Rev 11:1; Rev 21:15-16).
To measure Jerusalem--(Compare Rev 11:1; Rev 21:15-16).
to see what is the breadth . . . what is the length--rather, "what is to be the due breadth and length."
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 6, 10 The third vision — the man with the measuring…
The third vision — the man with the measuring line, 1-13.
The overthrow of the hostile nations (Zec_1:18-21) will prepare the way for the exaltation of the oppressed people. Jerusalem will be rebuilt, Jehovah will return to live in Zion, and many nations will join themselves to the redeemed community. To bring these truths before the prophet and the people is the purpose of the third vision, in which Zechariah sees a man with a measuring line in his hand, going forth to measure Jerusalem, for the purpose of determining the location of the new walls (Zec_2:1-2). He is informed that walls are not necessary because (Zec_2:1) the city will be too populous to be contained within walls, (Zec_2:2) Jehovah himself will be a wall of fire around her (Zec_2:3-5). The vision proper is followed by an exhortation to the exiled Jews to get ready to flee from the land of exile (Zec_2:6-7), for Jehovah is about to shake the nations (Zec_2:8-9) and to return to Zion, to take his permanent abode there (Zec_2:10-13).
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1, 2. A man with a measuring line — An expansion of the promise in Zec_1:16. The man is distinct from the interpreting angel; he is left undefined, because his personality is unimportant; his act alone is of significance. Again the prophet seeks an explanation.
Whither goest thou? — In the other visions the prophet addresses himself to the interpreting angel, here to the man with the measuring line. The interpreter appears after the man has given the desired information.
To measure Jerusalem — To determine the extent of the city. Zec_2:4-5 suggest that it was for the purpose of determining the location of the walls, which were still in ruins in the days of Zechariah.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 Ch. Zec_2:1. a man] Probably an angel in human…
Ch. Zec_2:1. a man] Probably an angel in human form, called a “young man,” Zec_2:4, where see note
a measuring line] The word is not the same as in Zec_1:16; but the promise there is taken up here, and its literal fulfilment, which the action of the man with the line seemed about to secure, is merged in a greater blessing. In Eze_40:3, Rev_11:1; Rev_21:15, a reed is used, in addition to, or instead of, a line as here.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–13 (1) A man does not seem to mean “an…
(1) A man does not seem to mean “an angel,” as in Zec_1:8, for he has no message to deliver or mission to perform; but he is to be considered rather as a mere figure in the vision, performing an action for which, indeed, he is implicitly rebuked.
II.
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THIRD VISION.—THE MAN WITH THE MEASURING LINE.
(1-5) This vision is a prophetic realisation of the fulfilment of the promise (Zec_1:16): “A line shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem.”
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–13 Vers. 1-13. The third vision: the man with the…
Vers. 1-13. The third vision: the man with the measuring line. (Heb_2:5)
I lifted up mine eyes again. (comp. Zec_5:1 Zec_6:1 Dan_8:3) This third vision makes a further revelation of God"s mercy to Israel. Consequent on the destruction of enemies shall be the growth and development of the chosen people till the time of their final glory. (comp. Zec_1:16) There is some difficulty in arranging the details of this vision, depending in great measure on the decision we arrive at with regard to the identification of the "young man" of ver. 4. Those who, as Theodoret, Hitzig, Schegg, Trcehon, Wright, Perowne, etc., consider him to be the man with the measuring line of ver. 1, do not explain why the message should be given to him instead of to the prophet who had asked for information. Nor is it at all certain that the measurer is meant to be regarded as having made a mistake in attempting to define the limits of what was practically unlimited viz. the restored Jerusalem and was stopped accordingly in his proceedings. It seems preferable, with Jerome, Cornelius a Lapide, Pusey, Keil, Knabenbauer, etc., to regard the "young man" as Zechariah himself. Then the vision is thus presented: The prophet sees a man with a measuring line; he asks whither he is going, and is answered that he was going forth to measure Jerusalem. Upon this the interpreting angel leaves the prophet"s side to receive the explanation of the man"s proceedings, and is met by a superior angel, who bids him hasten to tell the prophet the meaning of the vision. A man. Probably an angel in human form, as Zec_1:8. A measuring line. This is not the same word as that in Zec_1:16; but the idea there proposed is taken up here, and its fulfilment is set forth. (comp. Eze_11:3 Rev_11:1 Rev_21:15, Rev_21:16)
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Vers. 1-5. A vision of safety.
"I lifted up mine eyes again, and looked, and behold a man with a measuring line in his hand," etc. We have here another case of repetition and expansion. In the end of Zec_1:16 we had a brief promise of the full restoration of Jerusalem as a city a place of dwellings with dwellers therein. In the present passage we have the same promise expressed at more length. In other words, we are asked to observe
(1) how immediate its application;
(2) how emphatic its repetition; and
(3) how profound its significance.
I HOW IMMEDIATE ITS APPLICATION. So immediate, in fact, that the first steps towards its accomplishment had already begun. Whatever may have been previously resolved on in private in regard to building operations, the first visible and overt step in those operations themselves is that of measuring and staking the ground. The very children understand the meaning of that. Jehovah, accordingly, in the opening verses of this chapter, accommodates himself to this truth. The prophet sees manifestly (he "lifted up his eyes, and looked"), but apparently much to his surprise ("behold"), a man with a measuring line in his hand. Where is he going? so the prophet asks; and is told He is going to "Jerusalem" with his line. For what purpose? To "measure" it, to survey it as for building, to ascertain its length and its breadth. What does all this amount to? It amounts to "business," as we should now express it. Consultation, deliberation, decision, the time for all these is now past. It is the time for doing, for actual fulfilment. The work, in one sense, therefore, as we said, has begun. Compare "The hour is coming, and now is," in Joh_4:23 Joh 5:25; also Luk_12:49.
II HOW EMPHATIC ITS REPETITION. This shown:
1. By the dignity of the speaker. Two angels are now spoken of (vers. 3, 4), about whom and their respective doings much difference of interpretation exists. If, however, we assume the "young man" of ver. 4 to be the prophet himself (see Pusey, in loc.; and comp. Jer_1:6 2Ki_9:4, "the young man the prophet"), it seems clear that the one of these angels, speaking as he does (in ver. 5) in Jehovah s name, is that Angel-Jehovah mentioned before in Zec_1:11, Zec_1:12, and afterwards in Zec_3:1; as also that it is this same Angel who commissions the other to communicate to the prophet the declaration of ver. 4. No speaker, therefore, in regard to dignity, can go beyond him. (Mat_21:37 Heb_1:5)
2. The earnestness of the action.
(1) On this great Speaker"s part, "going forth," as with some special purpose in view.
(2) On the other angel"s part, going forth to "meet him," as though to learn his will as soon as possible.
(3) In the command given, to "run and speak," as men do who carry good tidings. (2Sa_18:27)
3. The explicitness of the language. Jerusalem was to more than recover (ver. 4) its former population and size. Now its population and dwellings were much too few for its ancient limits. By and by they should be as much too many. What evidence this of increase! What a picture of security, of population, of wealth! (comp. Gen_13:2 Gen_24:35 Job_1:3) What a promise, in short, of blessing and good!
III HOW PROFOUND ITS SIGNIFICANCE. The features already noticed, however stalking, were only, as it were, on the surface. There were others deeper and still more worthy of notice which accounted for these.
1. How came Jerusalem to be thus secure and enlarged? Because the Lord Jehovah himself was as "a wall of fire round about;" such a defence, i.e., as would not only keep the enemies out, but also destroy them if they essayed to draw near. (comp. Psa_125:2, a psalm, like Ps 126, probably belonging to this time; 2Ki_6:17)
2. How came Jerusalem to be thus protected and favoured? Because God himself had returned to dwell in her; and to do so, moreover, as her peculiar "glory." These two points illustrated by Psa_46:5; and Act_2:5-11 Act_8:27, Act_8:28. This, in short, was why there should be so many other inhabitants in Jerusalem, viz. because of this most glorious Inhabitant of all.
We are reminded by this subject yet further:
1. How swift and willing is the service of the angels of heaven. Compare the word "run," etc., with Dan_9:21, 23 Eze_1:14; and Psa_103:20, Psa_103:21. This described by the poet"Thousands at his bidding speed, And post o"er land and ocean. This partly at the root, perhaps, of the common notion that angels have wings. This also a thing to be imitated and aimed at by us. "Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
2. How blessed the effects of the presence of Christ. As to safety; (Mat_8:24-26) as to success; (Mat_18:19, Mat_18:20) as to comfort; (Mar_2:19) as to hope; (Col_1:27, "Christ among you, the Hope of glory as to all that constitutes heaven. (1Jo 3:2Jo 1Jo 14:8 1Jo 16:24)
HOMILIES BY W. FORSYTH Vers. 1-25. Measuring the Church.
"Jerusalem" stands for the Church. The "man" (ver. 1) seems the same person who is afterwards spoken of as "young," and who is implicitly rebuked for taking in hand a task beyond his powers. The passage suggests for consideration
I MAN"S IDEA OF THE CHURCH AS CAPABLE OF STRICT DEFINITION AND MEASUREMENT. There has always been a disposition to fix and limit the boundaries of the Church.
1. Irrational. The visible Church may be defined, but not the invisible. Truth is not to be measured by our belief, or godliness by the piety of the party to which we belong, or the community of the good by the little systems of our day.
2. Presumptuous. This work cannot be done by man. He has neither the capacity nor the means. "We mete out love as if our eye saw to the end of heaven." It demands higher powers a purer eye, a deeper insight, a more far reaching vision. Even Elijah failed, and Peter greatly erred. Only the Lord himself knoweth them who are his.
3. Injurious. Mistakes must occur. Some excluded who ought to have been included, and others included who should have been excluded. Hence evil both to the judge and to the judged pride, injustice, uncharitableness. See Saul "breathing out threatenings and slaughter." Mark John, the beloved disciple, wanting to call down fire on the Samaritans. Behold the Corinthian Church sample of many others down to our own day torn by factions and blighted by party spirit. How often, in the world, have grievous wars arisen from paltry questions as to boundaries! So the Church has suffered incalculable evils from "profane and vain babblings" and questions which minister strife.
II GOD"S IDEA OF THE CHURCH AS TRANSCENDING ALL HUMAN LIMITATIONS, God is the Supreme and only Judge. He sees things as they are. He knows not only the outward works, but the heart, and the end from the beginning. In the woman whom Simon the Pharisee despised our Lord saw a true penitent. In the man who was casting out devils in his name he discerns an ally, though he followed him not openly as a disciple. In the devout Cornelius he acknowledged a true worshipper and servant of God, though he was as yet unknown to the apostles. His love overflows the letter of our Creeds and the boundaries of our Churches. And as in the past, so in the future. The picture is grand and inspiring. It foreshadows the glory of the latter day. Here is:
1. Vast extension. (Vers. 6, 7) The Church is like a city that outgrows its walls, that absorbs the outlying villages and hamlets, that gradually includes the whole land in its benign embrace. As Jerusalem, so the Church, in the day of prosperity, would far surpass all former bounds.
2. Inviolable security. The figure is vivid and striking. It recalls the story of the prophet (2Ki_6:15-17) and the more ancient records of Moses and of Israel in the wilderness. The true defence is not material, but spiritual not of the world, but of God.
3. Divine blessedness. The life and splendour of the Church are in the inhabitation of God. This secures the supremacy of goodness, and the brotherhood of man in Christ Jesus. God is in the midst. "God is Light," "God is Love," God is Holiness; therefore the people will live and move and have their being in light and love and holiness. It will be the days of heaven on earth. F.
HOMILIES BY D. THOMAS Vers. 1-5. Third vision: an interesting future for the world.
"I lifted up mine eyes again, and looked, and, behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand. Then said I, Whither goest thou? And he said unto me, To measure Jerusalem, to see what is the breadth thereof, and what is the length thereof," etc. Here is the third vision which the prophet had the same night. It is a continuation of the subject of the former one, namely, the rebuilding and reoccupation of Jerusalem and the temple. Observe:
1. What he saw. "A man with a measuring line in his hand." In Eze_40:3 Eze 41,eze 42, you have the same image. Who was this man? The general impression is that it was the Messiah in human form. He is the great Moral Architect, the Builder of the great temple of truth in the world. Then the prophet sees angels. "Behold, the angel that talked with me went forth." Who was this angel? The interpreter. Then there is another angel he sees, who went out to meet him. Who is he? Some suppose, the same as the "man with the measuring line." In addition to this he sees a young man. "Run, speak to this young man." Who is this young man? He is generally believed to be the prophet himself; and Christ is here represented as commissioning an angel to run and speak.
2. What he says to him. "Whither goest thou?" The "man with the measuring line" excites his curiosity. His appearance, gait, speed, as he carried the measuring line in his hand, would naturally give occasion to the question.
3. What he heard. He heard the answer to his question: "To measure Jerusalem, to see what is the breadth thereof, and what is the length thereof." He beard the commission given to the angel: "Run, speak to this young man." He heard a description given of Jerusalem: "Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls," etc. And he heard the Divine promise made concerning it: "For I, saith the Lord, will be unto her a wall of fire round about." This part of his vision may be fairly taken to illustrate the future increase, security, and glory of good men on the earth.
I THE FUTURE INCREASE OF GOOD MEN ON THE EARTH. Two remarks are suggested concerning the extent of genuine religion. It is:
1. Measurable only by the Divine. Who had the "measuring line"? Not a mere man, not any created intelligence, but the God-Man, the Messiah. Men cannot measure the growth of piety in the world. They attempt it, but make fearful mistakes. They deal in statistics, they count the number of Churches in the world and the number of professed worshippers. But piety cannot be measured in this way. When you have summed up the number of temples and the number of professed worshippers, you have not approached a correct estimate as to the amount of genuine piety in the world. Have you scales by which to weigh genuine love? any numbers by which to count holy thoughts, aspirations, and volitions? any rules by which to gauge spiritual intelligence? Have you any plummet by which to fathom even the depths of a mother"s affections? No one but God can weigh and measure the holy experiences of holy souls. By his method of measurement he may discover more piety in a humble cottage than in crowded tabernacles and cathedrals. He hath the true "measuring line," and no one else. Hence endeavour not to determine the usefulness of a minister by the numbers of his congregation or the funds contributed by them.
2. Unrestricted by material bounds. "Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls for the multitude of men and cattle therein." The literal idea is that so many shall be its inhabitants that all could not be contained within the walls, but shall spread out in the open country around, (Est_9:19) and so secure shall they be as not to need shelter behind walls for themselves and the cattle. So hereafter Judaea is to be "the land of unwalled villages", (Eze_38:11) We are told that "the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.
II THE FUTURE SECURITY OF GOOD MEN ON THE EARTH. "For I, saith the Lord, will be unto her a wall of fire round about." "A wall of fire." Who shall penetrate a massive wall of fire? But that wall is God himself, omnipotent in strength, immeasurably high. "I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God;" "And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof". (Rev_21:3, Rev_21:23) Conventional Christians talk about the Church being in danger. Are the stars of heaven in danger? The true Church is founded on a rock, and the gates of hell cannot prevail against it. Omnipotence is the Guardian of the good. "He shall give his angels charge over thee," etc.
III THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE GOOD MEN ON THE EARTH. "And will be the Glory in the midst of her." The reference here is to the Shechinah and the mercy seat. Good men are the recipients and the reflectors of Divine glory. They are the temples for the Holy Ghost to dwell in, and they reveal more of him than the whole material universe. Holiest souls are his highest manifestations. D.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 13 A man with a measuring line in his hand
Zec_2:1-4
A man with a measuring line in his hand
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The man with a measure
The prophet asks where the man is going, and the answer given is--to measure; and then he shows what would be the measure of Jerusalem, that it would hereafter extend beyond the walls, as that compass would not contain the vast number of the people.
God will extend, he says, far and wide the holy city; it will no longer be confined as before to its own walls, but will be inhabited through all its villages. There is then no doubt but that God intended here to bear witness respecting the propagation of His Church, which was to follow a long time afterwards, even after the coming of Christ. For though Jerusalem became wealthy and also large in its compass, and, as it is well known, a triple city, and heathen writers say that it was among the first of the cities of the East when Babylon was still existing, yet this prophecy was not verified in the state of Jerusalem, for it was not inhabited without its walls, nor did it spread through the whole of Judaea. We hence conclude that the spiritual Jerusalem is here described which differs from all earthly cities. Here is described the heavenly Jerusalem, which is surrounded by no walls, but is open to the whole world, and which depends not on its own strength, but dwells safely though exposed on all sides to enemies; for the prophet says, not without reason, through the villages shall Jerusalem be inhabited; that is, it shall everywhere be inhabited, so that it will have no need of defence to restrain or hinder enemies to come near; for a safe rest shall be given to it, when every one shall quietly occupy his own place. Though few returned from exile, God was yet able to increase the Church, and to make it a vast multitude, and this was certain and decreed, for it was shown by the vision that however unequal they were to their enemies, God was still sufficiently strong and powerful to defend them; and that however destitute they were of all blessings, God was still rich enough to enrich them, provided they relied on the blessing which He had promised. (John Calvin.)
The optimism of faith
Zechariah was the most uniformly hopeful of all the prophets. He was a young man. His little book is the work of a youthful imaginative mind, richly endowed with poetic gifts, as well as steeped in the diviner fount of inspiration. He saw all things bathed in the glory of the morning. The time in which he wrote was near the end of the Babylonian captivity. The prophet draws one picture after another of the glorious things which were nigh. Here the prophet sees a young man going with a measuring line in his hand, and asks Whither? To measure Jerusalem, is the answer, and straightway he marches on. Then the angels appear, and one says to the other, Go after that young man, and tell him that his measuring line is too short. Jerusalem will expand beyond all boundaries and all measurements, because of the number of people in it. Tell him that he is going to measure the immeasurable. This allegory contains these two Gospel truths.
1. Faith realises that which does not exist.
2. These Divine things which faith realises are so great that even faith cannot measure them.
I. Faith realises that which is to be. This young man was going to do an apparent absurdity. He was going to measure a city which had not yet been built. All the practical, materialistic, matter-of-fact people of the world would call that the very climax of folly. The Gospel of common sense says, Let us have no illusions. Give us facts, for anything which is not built upon facts is foolishness. Our religion indulges throughout in this foolishness, if foolishness it may be called. Faith realises the city that is not yet built., grasps coming events as though they were already present. All the best and greatest men and women that have ever been upon this earth have lived and moved and had their being in what was called a world of dreams, a world, that is, of fair, sweet hopes, of treasures and of glories that had not yet been created. Illustrated by Abraham, David, etc. It is the source and secret of all our strength and confidence, that where other eyes see only imperfections, we see a city of God which He will most assuredly build.
II. These Divine things which faith realises before they come into existence are so great that even faith cannot measure them. The angel speaks to the young man, to rebuke him for the presumption of thinking that he can measure the city--it is immeasurable. We cannot measure anything that God builds. You cannot gauge moral influences or tabulate spiritual forces. There is no plummet that can sound the depths of love Divine. You could have measured Giant Goliath, but you could not have measured the faith and the courage of the young man who came up to meet him in the name of the Lord. Illustrated from the company carried by the Mayflower; or by comparing the French Revolution with the beginning of missionary enterprise. You cannot measure the Church, the Church of Christ. It is infinitely broader, larger, stronger, than the most flattering statistics show. (J. G. Greenhough, M. A.)
The man with the measuring line
It was natural enough. We dream of what occupies our waking thoughts; and probably Jerusalem was full of surveyors, engaged in mapping out the new streets and walls.
1. The pessimist comes with his measuring line, and draws the plan of the city within the narrowest possible boundaries. He justifies his forecast by quoting such a text as Fear not, little flock; or Strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Sometimes he fears that he will not enter, at other times he doubts all others but himself.
2. The bigot comes with his measuring line and insists that the city walls must coincide with his shibboleth, and follow the tracings of his creed.
3. The experimentalist is apt to refuse to consider as Christians those who have not experienced exactly the same doubts, fears, ecstasies, deliverances, and cleansings which he himself has felt.
4. The universalist goes to the other extreme, and practically builds his walls around the entire race of man, including within their circumference every member of the human family. It is not for us to fix the boundaries, or insist on our conceptions. These are secret things which belong to the Lord our God. So shall it be with the saved. We have no right to include in their ranks any who know not God, and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus, who have loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. But apart from these, there will be a multitude which no man can number, out of every nation and of all tribes, and peoples, and tongues; as stars in the midnight sky, or the sand grains on the seashore. (P. B. Meyer, B. A.)
An interesting future of the world
I. The future increase of good men on the earth. Two remarks are suggested concerning the extent of genuine religion. It is--
1. Measurable only by the Divine. Who had the measuring line? Not a mere man, not any created intelligence, but the God-man, the Messiah. Men cannot measure the growth of piety in the world. They attempt it, but make fearful mistakes. They deal in statistics, they count the number of churches in the world and the number of professed worshippers. But piety cannot be measured in this way. Have you scales by which to weigh genuine love? Any numbers by which to count holy thoughts, aspirations, and volitions? Any rules by which to gauge spiritual intelligence? Have you any plummet by which to fathom even the depths of a mothers affections? No one but God can weigh and measure the holy experiences of holy souls.
II. The future security of good men on the earth. Who shall penetrate a massive wall of fire? But that wall is God Himself, omnipotent in strength. Omnipotence is the Guardian of the good.
III. The future glory of the good men on the earth. Good men are the recipients and the reflectors of the Divine glory. They are the temples for the Holy Ghost to dwell in, and they reveal more of Him than the whole material universe. Holiest souls are His highest manifestations. (Homilist.)
The true glory of the Church
1. Although Zion has not yet lengthened her cords and widened her stakes to her appointed limits, yet the measuring line has gone forth that gives her bounds to be the habitable earth. Hence, if this future extension was a motive to the Jew, in his work of rearing the temple of wood and stone, much more is it to us in our work of erecting the great spiritual temple on the foundation, Jesus Christ (Zec_2:1-4).
2. We learn here the true glory of the Church. It is not in any external pomp or power, of any kind; not in frowning battlements, either of temporal or spiritual pretensions; not in rites and ceremonies, however moss grown and venerable; not in splendid cathedrals and gorgeous vestments, and the swell of music, and the glitter of eloquence, but in the indwelling glory of the invisible God. Her outward rites and ceremonies, therefore, should only be like what the earths atmosphere is to the rays of the sun, a pure, transparent medium of transmission (Zec_2:5).
3. The punishment of the wicked as truly declares the glory of God as the salvation of the righteous (Zec_2:8).
4. The wicked shall ultimately be the slaves of their own lusts; those appetites and passions which were designed to be merely their obedient servants, shall become their tormenting and inexorable tyrants (Zec_2:9).
5. The incarnation of Christ and His indwelling in the Church are grounds of the highest joy (Zec_2:10).
6. Christ is a Divine Saviour. In Zec_2:10-11, we have one Jehovah sending another, and the Jehovah sent is identified with the angel of the covenant, who was to come and dwell in the Church, whom we know to be Christ. Hence, unless there are two distinct Jehovahs, one Divine and the other not, Christ, the Jehovah, angel of this passage, is Divine.
7. The Church of God shall cover the earth, and become in fact, what it is in right, the mightiest agency in human history. Though now feeble and despised, she shall one day include many nations, and every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Zec_2:11).
8. Delay of punishment is no proof of impunity. God often seems to be asleep, but He is only awaiting the appointed time; in the end, when all seems as it was from the foundation of the world, the herald cry shall go forth, Be silent, O earth, for Jehovah is aroused to His terrible work, and the day of His wrath is come. Let men kiss the Son whilst He is yet in the way, before His anger is kindled but a little, and they perish before Him like stubble before the whirlwind of flames. (T. V. Moore, D. D.)
The man with the measuring line
In this vision God presented to the prophet, and through him to the nation at large, the prospect and the assurance of the restoration of Jerusalem, and the reestablishment of the Jewish state as it had been before the captivity. The city should not only be rebuilt, but greatly extended: the temple should be restored, and the worship of Jehovah resumed; His presence should be with His people, and they should enjoy His protection; and whilst they were thus blessed, judgment should come upon those nations that had oppressed them, and they should have supremacy over those by whom they had been enslaved. All this was literally fulfilled. But even in these promises there seems to be a reference to things of still higher import, and of spiritual significancy Who can such a speaker be but that Being who in the fulness of time appeared in our world, uniting in His one person the human and the Divine natures? May we not say, then, that there is here a promise of blessing to the Church through the advent of the Redeemer? Then certainly was glory brought to the temple of the Lord. The Church of God, under the latter dispensation, may take to herself as her own the comfort and encouragement which those promises, given to the Church in the old times, were intended to convey. Security, protection, glory, grace, blessing, extension, and final triumph are all assured to her by the promise of Him whose word cannot fail. (W. L. Alexander, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 5 The Second Vision supplies what is lacking in the…
THE SECOND VISION: THE FOUR HORNS AND THE FOUR SMITHS
{Zec_2:1-4}
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The Second Vision supplies what is lacking in the First, the destruction of the tyrants who have oppressed Israel. The prophet sees four horns, which, he is told by his interpreting angel, are the powers that have scattered Judah. The many attempts to identify these with four heathen nations are ingenious but futile. "Four horns were seen as representing the totality of Israels enemies-her enemies from all quarters." And to destroy these horns four smiths appear. Because in the Vision the horns are of iron, in Israel an old symbol of power, the first verb used of the action can hardly be, as in the Hebrew text, to terrify. The Greek reads "sharpen," and probably some verb meaning "to cut" or "chisel" stood in the original.
"And I lifted mine eyes and looked, and lo! four horns. And I said to the angel who spoke with me, What are these? And he said to me, These are the horns which scattered Judah, Israel and Jerusalem. And Jehovah showed me four smiths. And I said, What are these coming to do? And he spake, saying, These are the horns which scattered Judah, so that none lifted up his head; and these are come to them, to strike down the horns of the nations, that lifted the horn against the land of Judah to scatter it."
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv1, 6, 10 CRITICAL NOTES.] The third vision. Man] Messiah, who measures…
CRITICAL NOTES.] The third vision. Man] Messiah, who measures and will restore the city.
Zec_2:2. Measure] To sketch a plan for its arrangement and rebuilding, denoting exactness of proportions and completeness of number (Rev_2:1; Rev_21:15-16).
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Zec_2:4. Run] Necessity of despatch. Young man] Zechariah young in service or in age, probably between 20 and 30 years old. Jerusalem] to have vast influx of men and cattle, no longer to be confined in narrow walls and fixed limits, but spread out like the open country (Isa_49:19-20; Eze_38:11).
Zec_2:5. Wall] Protection, in allusion to nightly encampments, when fires were kindled to keep off wild beasts. Glory] Illustrious displays of God’s presence; an allusion to the Divine presence in the Holiest (Rom_9:4).
HOMILETICS
THE MEASURED CITY.—Zec_2:1-5
The third vision continues the subject of the second—the rebuilding of the city and temple of Jerusalem. The one represents the destruction of Israel’s foes, the other the increase and security of the covenant nation. The prophet sees a man with a measuring-line advancing on the scene, and asks the meaning. The answer is given, that Jerusalem is about to be measured, with a view to future glory and extension.
I. The city accurately measured. “To measure Jerusalem, to see what is the breadth thereof, and what is the length thereof.” When a house or city is built or enlarged a survey is made. When Constantine resolved to erect a metropolis for his mighty empire, he set out on foot, at the head of a procession, to trace its boundary. His attendants expressed astonishment at the breadth of the circuit he was taking. “I shall still advance, till he, my Invisible Guide, thinks proper to stop,” was the reply. He halted not till wide over seven hills the limits were fixed. Then millions from all parts of his dominions set to work with wonderful success. The Church has an architect,—“whose builder and maker is God.” Before a stone was laid, the dimensions were taken, and the plan formed. If men form plans before they build, shall not God? In creation we have order and measurement, in providence purpose and gradual fulfilment. God knows the number and condition of the Christian Church—the true and the false professors. On earth and in heaven this city is defined in its proportions, and exact in its size (Rev_2:1; Rev_21:15-16).
II. The city greatly enlarged. “Jerusalem was to be inhabited as towns without walls.” The former limits of the city would be too narrow. The inhabitants shall become so many that they shall spread out and dwell securely in the open country. Earthly walls may defend, but they limit and straiten a city. Barriers will be removed, and the boundaries of the Church shall extend far and wide. Literally, this was verified. Josephus and others tell us that the citizens “gradually crept out beyond its walls,” and grew “to a number which the city in its ancient dimensions could not supply with dwellings.” Spiritually, the Mosaic walls were thrown down, and the limits of the Church extended to others far beyond the Jewish nation. Now the “line” of the gospel “is gone out through all the earth.” There is yet room for “every kindred and people and nation and tongue.” Of the increase of this city there will be no end. Its inhabitants at length will be “a multitude which no man can number.”
III. The city Divinely protected. “The Lord will be unto her a wall of fire round about,” &c. No danger will happen to the unwalled city. God would encamp round it, a wall of fire, to consume every foe that invades it. Moats may be crossed, massive walls may be assailed, and mighty ramparts be overturned; but a circle of flame is an impassable barrier. The walls of Babylon were levelled to the ground, the hills round Jerusalem were scaled, and proud cities have been destroyed; but God is the defence without and the glory within the Church. It is a strong city, and God has appointed salvation for walls and bulwarks (Isa_26:1). “As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about his people, from henceforth even for ever.”
In Zec_2:4-5, three things are promised respecting the literal Jerusalem.
I. Extension. Notice the correspondence between Zec_2:4 and the representation in the first vision (chap. Zec_1:16-17). The expression, “shall be inhabited without walls” (or as a modern translator gives, “as unwalled villages”), has a meaning sufficiently obvious; viz. that the former limits of the city which “the man with the measuring-line” was about to take, would be too straitened for the number of its inhabitants; so that they would spread themselves out into surrounding localities. This was literally fulfilled. For a time immediately after the return from Babylon, under Nehemiah, the building and extension were rapid. The progress suffered interruption—adverse and prosperous seasons,—opposition and favour; till, in the period of the heroic Maccabees, “Jerusalem, blessed with freedom and prosperity, filled the extent of her walls with citizens, resumed her royal insignia under native princes, overpassed her former boundaries,—and, as the head of a populous and extensive territory, rose to a state of opulence, power, dignity, and splendour which she had not known since the division of Israel and Judah” [Stonard].
II. Security. This is implied, to a certain extent, in the former particular. The very idea of dwelling “without walls” implies confidence or felt safety. But mark the striking promise (Zec_2:5). The figure is most vivid and expressive. As a literal “wall of fire,” environing a city, would effectually prevent intrusion by consuming all who should venture to attempt it; so would Jehovah’s avenging jealousy destroy every assailant of the holy city. He himself would be its unseen but sure protection. Had the inhabitants—Israel and Judah generally—in former days exercised faith in God, walked in his fear, maintained the purity of his worship, and the practice of his laws, its walls had never been overthrown, nor its temple demolished; it would have been as safe without walls as with them; it would never have experienced its seventy years’ desolation, nor its people the same period of captivity and oppression. Now he had begun their promised restoration and engages to invest their city anew with his all protecting presence and power. The figure resembles the vision in 2Ki_6:15-17.
III. Glory. “The glory in the midst of her.” Jehovah’s presence, “dwelling between the cherubim,” was from the beginning and all along the true glory of ancient Jerusalem. Its Shekinah was glorious; but this was only the visible symbol of an infinitely more glorious presence. The Jews counted the fire, and the temple, the ark, the altar, and the pomp of ritual their glory. But these external glories did nothing for them. When by their sins they drove Jehovah from them their true glory departed. When he took up anew his abode with them—that would be their glory. He would also be glorified in delivering them from thraldom, protecting them in danger, receiving their homage, vindicating their rights, and avenging their wrongs [Wardlaw condensed].
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
Zec_2:1-5. I believe this passage refers to a happy and glorious future, yet to come, when the city of Jerusalem shall have no walls, except the protection of the Lord, but shall be extended far and wide. The Jewish people and their royal city shall remain the centre of the manifestations of the Divine glory, just as the city of London still remains the centre of the metropolis; but the nations of the earth shall be joined unto the Lord; so that while Jerusalem remains the city of the Great King, the faithful among the people of all nations shall be, as it were, a suburban population to the chosen city, and the kingdom of the Messiah shall extend far and wide. The city will be rebuilt in more than former splendour—the Jews restored to their own land, and Messiah reign as a prince of the house of David. The text will bear an application to the Church and congregation.
1. First, let us see the man with the measuring-line in his hand. It is possible that the man in the text was nothing but a man. I have intense reverence to the angel, but entire dislike to the man, with the measuring-line. Men err in measuring the length and breadth of God’s true Church. 2. Hear the prophecy of a great extension of the kingdom of Christ. Look for it now. Learn that the supply for all the number shall be as great as is required. The cattle are the provisions for the population. God will give whatever provision the Church wants. Divine love shall be very sweetly enjoyed among all the members. The joy of the Divine presence will be common.
3. Observe where this great increase is to come from. From two sources, indicated in Zec_2:6-7. Multitudes are to come out of the world. People of God are scattered everywhere, but God knows them and will bring them together. A large number do not believe in Christ, but dwell with the daughter of Babylon. From unconverted men and women we expect the greatest increase through the Spirit’s power. We are looking for it, and praying for it; may God grant it [Spurgeon].
Zec_2:1 to Zec_4:1. It is our duty to inquire into God’s dealings with his Church, search out his mind, and read his word.
2. Such as would see the true condition of the Church have need of elevated and spiritual minds, enlightened by God. “I lifted up mine eyes,” &c. [cf. Hutcheson].
3. Those who inquire in the right spirit shall be lightened to discern the safety and glory of the Church.
(1) Enlightened wonderfully. Angels and prophets were commanded to teach.
(2) Enlightened earnestly. “Run, speak,” &c “Not go, but run; yea, fly swiftly, with weariness of flight, as Dan_9:21. Christ thinks it long ere his praying people hear from him” [Trapp].
Zec_2:4. Run, speak. A sermon to young men. Speak to him of his mental, moral, and spiritual interests. Speak in earnestness, and without delay. “Run.” Remember the honour God has conferred upon you in giving you the command to speak. “The angel tells the prophet, but the prophet must tell the people; God using not the ministry of angels, but men, earthen vessels, to bear his name to his people (Act_8:27; Act_9:6; Act_16:9” [Trapp].
Zec_2:5. God the beauty and the bulwark of the Church. His presence a pledge of his protection, a provision for outward and inward wants. Zion’s true glory is not in architecture and ritual, in eloquence and music, but in the presence of God’s Spirit, quickening the saint. “When the Lord converting the sinner and shall build up Zion, he will appear in glory.”
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 2
Zec_2:1-4. Behold, a man. All Zechariah’s visions are remarkably simple. They are not like Isaiah’s, when he saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; nor like Ezekiel’s, when he beheld living creatures with four faces, and wheels full of eyes. Zechariah had not imagination enough to be capable of beholding with due appreciation visions so complicated and mysterious. He was not the proper instrument of God for the revelation of those more mysterious matters: but the Lord had a place for him, and a vision for him too. How sweet to be a servant of God in any position [Spurgeon].
Zec_2:5. Wall. China is said to be protected by a wall of stone; old England is shielded by her wooden walls; but the Church of God has a better wall still, for she has the Divine wall of fire; her enemies cannot break through this to destroy the meanest of her citizens, and her false friends shall say to themselves, “Who among us can dwell with eternal burnings?” and so shall start back from a Church which is visibly sheltered and protected by the presence of the Most High [Spurgeon].
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 Zec 2:1-13
Zec 2:1-13
I. In this vision God presented to the prophet, and through him to the nation at large, the prospect and the assurance of the restoration of Jerusalem, and the re-establishment of the Jewish state as it had been before the captivity. The city should not only be rebuilt, but greatly extended; the temple should be restored, and the worship of Jehovah resumed; His presence should be with His people, and they should enjoy His protection; and whilst they were thus blessed judgment should come upon those nations that had oppressed them, and they should have supremacy over those by whom they had been enslaved. All this was literally fulfilled. But even in these promises there seems to be a reference to things of still higher import, and of spiritual significancy. The speaker here is the Angel of Jehovah, and He, whilst He speaks of Himself as Jehovah’s messenger, at the same time uses language which no mere created angel could use. In His own name He threatens to punish the nations, and that with a mere motion of His hand; and to Israel He promises for God that He would come and dwell among them as their God, and inherit Judah as His portion. Who can such a speaker be but that Being who in the fulness of time appeared in our world, uniting in His one Person the Divine nature and the human; He who came and dwelt among men, and was Emmanuel, God with us? May we not say, then, that there is here a promise of blessing to the Church through the advent of the Redeemer?
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II. It is in accordance with the general strain of prophetic announcement concerning the latter dispensation, when the speaker here announces that many nations should be joined to the Lord, and become His people. The conversion of individuals might take place under the ancient dispensation; a few proselytes might from time to time join themselves to the people of God; but it was reserved for the times of the Messiah for nations as such to be converted to the Lord. Only under Him on whose shoulder the government is laid, and who shall reign from sea to sea and from the rivers to the ends of the earth, shall the forces of the Gentiles be brought into the Church, and the world be converted to God.
W. Lindsay Alexander, Zechariah’s Visions and Warnings, p. 23; see also Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iii., p. 222.
References: Zec 2:4.—J. Hiles Hitchens, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxv., p. 232; J. N. Norton, Every Sunday, p. 106, Zec 2:8.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. viii., No. 452. Zec 2:10.—J. E. Vaux, Sermon Notes, 1st series, p. 12.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v4 Zec 2:4 - Zec 2:5.
Zechariah
THE CITY WITHOUT WALLS
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Zec 2:4 - Zec 2:5.
Zechariah was the Prophet of the returning exiles, and his great work was to hearten them for their difficult task, with their small resources and their many foes, and to insist that the prime condition to success, on the part of that portion of the nation that had returned, was holiness. So his visions, of which there is a whole series, are very largely concerned with the building of the Temple and of the city. In this one, he sees a man with a measuring-rod in his hand coming forth to take the dimensions of the still un-existing city of God. The words that I have read are the centre portion of that vision. You notice that there are three clauses, and that the first in order is the consequence of the other two. ‘Jerusalem shall be builded as a city without walls . . . for I will be a wall of fire round about her, and the glory in the midst of her.’
And that exuberant promise was spoken about the Jerusalem over which Christ wept when he foresaw its inevitable destruction. When the Romans had cast a torch into the Temple, and the streets of the city were running with blood, what had become of Zechariah’s dream of a wall of fire round about her? Then can the divine fire be quenched? Yes. And who quenched it? Not the Romans, but the people that lived within that flaming rampart. The apparent failure of the promise carries the lesson for churches and individuals to-day, that in spite of such glowing predictions, there may again sound the voice that the legend says was heard within the Temple, on the night before Jerusalem fell. ‘Let us depart,’ and there was a rustling of unseen wings, and on the morrow the legionaries were in the shrine. ‘If God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest He also spare not thee.’
Now let us look, in the simplest possible way, at these three clauses, and the promises that are in them; keeping in mind that, like all the divine promises, they are conditional.
The first is this:-
I. ‘I will be a wall of fire round about her.’
I need not dwell on the vividness and beauty of that metaphor. These encircling flames will consume all antagonism, and defy all approach. But let me remind you that the conditional promise was intended for Judæa and Jerusalem, and was fulfilled in literal fact. So long as the city obeyed and trusted God it was impregnable, though all the nations stood round about it, like dogs round a sheep. The fulfilment of the promise has passed over, with all the rest that characterised Israel’s position, to the Christian Church, and to-day, in the midst of all the agitations of opinion, and all the vauntings of men about an effete Christianity, and dead churches, it is as true as ever it was that the living Church of God is eternal. If it had not been that there was a God as a wall of fire round about the Church, it would have been wiped off the face of the earth long ago. If nothing else had killed it the faults of its members would have done so. The continuance of the Church is a perpetual miracle, when you take into account the weakness, and the errors, and the follies, and the stupidities, and the narrownesses, and the sins, of the people who in any given day represent it. That it should stand at all, and that it should conquer, seems to me to be as plain a demonstration of the present working of God, as is the existence still, as a separate individuality amongst the peoples of the earth, of His ancient people, the Jews. Who was it who said, when somebody asked him for the best proof of the truth of Christianity, ‘The Jews’? and so we may say, if you want a demonstration that God is working in the world, ‘Look at the continuance of the Christian Church.’
In spite of all the vauntings of people that have already discounted its fall, and are talking as if it needed no more to be reckoned with, that calm confidence is the spirit in which we are to look around and forward. It does not become any Christian ever to have the smallest scintillation of a fear that the ship that bears Jesus Christ can fail to come to land, or can sink in the midst of the waters. There was once a timid would-be helper who put out his hand to hold up the Ark of God. He need not have been afraid. The oxen might stumble, and the cart roll about, but the Ark was safe and stable. A great deal may go, but the wall of fire will be around the Church. In regard to its existence, as in regard to the immortal being of each of its members, the great word remains for ever true: ‘Because I live ye shall live also.’
But do not let us forget that this great promise does not belong only to the Church as a whole, but that we have each to bring it down to our own individual lives, and to be quite sure of this, that in spite of all that sense says, in spite of all that quivering hearts and weeping eyes may seem to prove, there is a wall of fire round each of us, if we are keeping near Jesus Christ, through which it is as impossible that any real evil should pass and get at us, as it would be impossible that any living thing should pass through the flaming battlements that the Prophet saw round his ideal city. Only we have to interpret that promise by faith and not by sense, and we have to make it possible that it shall be fulfilled by keeping inside the wall, and trusting to it. As faith dwindles, the fiery wall burns dim, and evil can get across its embers, and can get at us. Keep within the battlements, and they will flame up bright and impassable, with a fire that on the outer side consumes, but to those within is a fire that cherishes and warms.
II. The next point of the promise passes into a more intimate region.
It is well to have a defence from that which is without us; but it is more needful to have, if a comparison can be made between the two, a glory ‘in the midst’ of us.
The one is external defence; the other inward illumination, with all which light symbolises-knowledge, joy, purity.
There is even more than that meant by this great promise. For notice that emphatic little word the-the glory, not a glory-in the midst of her. Now you all know what ‘the glory’ was. It was that symbolic Light that spoke of the special presence of God, and went with the Children of Israel in their wanderings, and sat between the Cherubim. There was no ‘Shechinah,’ as it is technically called, in that second Temple. But yet the Prophet says, ‘The glory’-the actual presence of God-’shall be in the midst of her,’ and the meaning of that great promise is taught us by the very last vision in the New Testament, in which the Seer of the Apocalypse says, ‘The glory of the Lord did lighten it’ {evidently quoting Zechariah}, ‘and the Lamb is the light thereof.’ So the city is lit as by one central glow of radiance that flashes its beams into every corner, and therefore ‘there shall be no night there.’
Now this promise, too, bears on churches and on individuals. On the Church as a whole it bears in this way: the only means by which a Christian community can fulfil its function, and be the light of the world, is by having the presence of God, in no metaphor, the actual presence of the illuminating Spirit in its midst. If it has not that, it may have anything and everything else-wealth, culture, learning, eloquence, influence in the world-but all is of no use; it will be darkness. We are light only in proportion as we are ‘light in the Lord.’ As long as we, as communities, keep our hearts in touch with Him, so long do we shine. Break the contact, and the light fades and flickers out.
The same thing is true, dear brethren, about individuals. For each of us the secret of joy, of purity, of knowledge, is that we be holding close communion with God. If we have Him in the depths of our hearts, then, and only then, shall we be ‘light in the Lord.’
And now look at the last point which follows, as I have said, as the result of the other two.
III. ‘Jerusalem shall be without walls.’
It is to be like the defenceless villages scattered up and down over Israel. There is no need for bulwarks of stone. The wall of fire is round about. The Prophet has a vision of a great city, of a type unknown in those old times, though familiar to us in our more peaceful days, where there was no hindrance to expansion by encircling ramparts, no crowding together of the people because they needed to hide behind the city walls; and where the growing community could spread out into the outer suburbs, and have fresh air and ample space. That is the vision of the manner of city that Jerusalem was to be. It did not come true, but the ideal was this. It has not yet come true sufficiently in regard to the churches of to-day, but it ought to be the goal to which they are tending. The more a Christian community is independent of external material supports and defences the better.
I am not going to talk about the policy or impolicy of Established Churches, as they are called. But it seems to me that the principle that is enshrined in this vision is their condemnation. Never mind about stone and lime walls, trust in God and you will not need them, and you will be strong and ‘established’ just in the proportion in which you are cut loose from all dependence upon, and consequent subordination to, the civil power.
But there is another thought that I might suggest, though I do not know that it is directly in the line of the Prophet’s vision; and that is-a Christian Church should neither depend on, nor be cribbed and cramped by, men-made defences of any kind. Luther tells us somewhere, in his parabolic way, of people that wept because there were no visible pillars to hold up the heavens, and were afraid that the sky would fall upon their heads. No, no, there is no fear of that happening, for an unseen hand holds them up. A church that hides behind the fortifications of its grandfathers’ erection has no room for expansion; and if it has no room for expansion it will not long continue as large as it is. It must either grow greater, or grow, and deserve to grow, less.
The same thing is true, dear brethren, about ourselves individually. Zechariah’s prophecy was never meant to prevent what he himself helped to further, the building of the actual walls of the actual city. And our dependence upon God is not to be so construed as that we are to waive our own common-sense and our own effort. That is not faith; it is fanaticism.
We have to build ourselves round, in this world, with other things than the ‘wall of fire,’ but in all our building we have to say, ‘Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it. Except the Lord keep the city, the watchers watch in vain.’ But yet neither Jerusalem nor the Church, nor the earthly state of that believer who lives most fully the life of faith, exhausts this promise. It waits for the day when the city shall descend, ‘like a bride adorned for her husband, having no need of the sun nor of the moon, for the glory . . . lightens it.’ Having walls, indeed, but for splendour, not for defence; and having gates, which have only one of the functions of a gate-to stand wide open, to the east and the west, and the north and the south, for the nations to enter in; and never needing to be barred against enemies by day, ‘for there shall be no night there.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 The Third Vision
The Third Vision
1-5. A young man with a measuring line goes forth to measure Jerusalem preparatory to rebuilding the walls. But an angel is sent to stop him. The population will so increase as to exceed all human expectations, and God will be the city's best defence.
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6-9. The Jews are summoned to leave Babylon, for judgment is to fall upon that city.
10-12. God's gracious promise to dwell in Jerusalem, to which the nations will come.
1. A man with a measuring line] The vision is probably connected with what, at the time, was really under discussion, viz. the rebuilding of the walls. The Jews felt that they were few in number, and without proper defences.
3, 4. The interpreting angel stands near the prophet. He goes forth to meet another angel, who asks him to stop this young man in a useless task. The city is destined to have an overflowing population. No walls will be able to contain it. It will stretch forth its houses far out into the surrounding country and seem, not like a walled city, but like a series of country towns packed together.
5. In addition to this reason, the prophet has no faith in warlike fortifications (cp. the subsequent disastrous sieges of Jerusalem by the Syrians and Romans: Jos. 'Wars of Jews,'
1. 6, etc.). God is her best protection. A wall of fire] a figure suggested by the watch-fires, built round a desert caravan when camping at night, to scare away wild beasts: cp. 1Sa_25:16.
6-13. This section forms a poetical prophecy, addressed to the Jews still remaining in Babylon.
6. Land of the north] Babylon. Spread] scattered in exile.
7. Deliver thyself, O Zion] better, 'Ho, escape to Zion.'
8. After the glory] better, 'after glory,' i.e. to win glory, by bringing judgment on the Babylonians who spoiled Israel. Me] the angel is still speaking. Apple of his eye] here lit. 'the door of his eye'; elsewhere, 'the daughter,' i.e. the pupil of the eye, which, from its position, importance, and surroundings, is used as an emblem of what is exceedingly precious: cp. Deu_32:10; Psa_17:8, etc.
10. This prophecy was fulfilled when the Temple was completed and consecrated by Zerubbabel in 516 b.c.
11. Many nations shall be joined to the Lord] better, 'shall join themselves.' This was fulfilled after the coming of Jesus Christ, who also fulfilled the words, 'I will dwell in the midst of thee.'
12. His portion in the holy land] better, 'his portion shall be upon holy ground,' i.e. in Zion.
13. Be silent] lit. 'hush!' cp. Hab_2:20. Is raised up] better, 'hath roused himself'—said of God when He is about to execute some great purpose. His holy habitation] i.e. heaven.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv1, 3 As in Zec 1:8-11, the "man" of Zec 2:11…
again
As in Zec 1:8-11, the "man" of Zec 2:11 is "the angel that talked with me" of Zec 1:3. The measuring-line (or reed) is used by Ezekiel Eze 40:3; Eze 40:5 as a symbol of preparation for rebuilding the city and temple in the kingdom-age. Here also it has that meaning, as the context (Zec 2:4-13) shows. The subject of the vision is the restoration of nation and city. In no sense has this prophecy been fulfilled. The order is:
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(1) The Lord in glory in Jerusalem, Zec 2:5 (cf. Mat 24:29; Mat 24:30)
(2) the restoration of Israel, Zec 2:6;
(3) the judgment of Jehovah upon the nations, Zec 2:8, "after the glory" Mat 25:31; Mat 25:32
(4) the full blessing of the earth in the kingdom, Zec 2:10-13, See "Kingdom (O.T.)" Gen 1:26. (See Scofield "Zec 12:8"). "Israel,"; Gen 12:2; Rom 11:26.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 1. The man with the measuring line (Zec 2:1-2)
CHAPTER 2
1. The man with the measuring line (Zec 2:1-2)
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2. The message of the third night vision (Zec 2:3-9)
3. The glorious kingdom (Zec 2:10-12)
Zec 2:1-2. The third night vision is one of the coming glory. The number three stands in the Word of God for resurrection, life from the dead. Thus in Hosea, concerning Israel, “After two days Thou wilt revive us, and on the third day Thou wilt raise us up” Hos 6:2. In this third vision Zechariah sees the glorious restoration of Israel, which has been the burden of so many prophecies, and the glory which is connected with that restoration. In this night vision Zechariah hears of a restoration and of a glory which has never yet been fulfilled in the history of God’s people. Those teachers of the Word who see in Zechariah’s night visions nothing but fulfilled prophecy, cannot answer certain questions satisfactorily, and their only refuge must be a spiritualizing of this restoration. Another thought before we take up this third vision. The vision of restoration comes after the enemies of Israel have been cast down. That prophecy might be fulfilled; prophecy about a believing, suffering Jewish remnant; prophecy concerning Jacob’s trouble, etc., a mock restoration, generally termed a restoration in unbelief, is to take place. There can be no doubt whatever that we are privileged to see the beginning of this restoration of part of the Jewish nation to the land of the fathers in unbelief. It is one of the signs of the nearness of that event for which the Church hopes, prays and waits: “our gathering together unto Him.” The world and the lukewarm Christian do not see it, but he who loves the Word and lives in the Word, has eyes to see and a hearing ear, and knows what is soon coming. The true restoration, however, will only come as it is seen so clearly in these night visions after the enemies have been overcome, the horns cast down, the image smashed--in other words, after the Lord has come.
First stands the man with the measuring line. He is to bear witness to the coming enlargement of Jerusalem. Similar visions where measuring takes place are found in Eze 41:1-26, where the future temple is measured, and in Rev 11:1-19 a reed is given to John to measure the temple of God, which is the temple erected by the Jews in unbelief during the tribulation period. Here it is the measuring of the city.
Zec 2:3-9. The angel who had talked with Zechariah was met by another angel. He brings the message to Zechariah, who is addressed as “this young man.” The coming restoration and enlargement of Jerusalem is announced. The city is to be inhabited as villages, which denotes the peace and safety which Jerusalem will enjoy in the day of her true restoration. It will be the temptation for the enemy, Gog and Magog, to invade the land. (See Eze 38:1-23; Eze 39:1-29.) The invasion of Gog and Magog in Rev 20:1-15 is after the millennium; the one in Ezekiel is in the beginning of the millennium [i.e., end of the tribulation. Ed.]. Then Zechariah hears in the message that the Lord will be Himself a wall of fire unto Jerusalem; He will be the glory in the midst of her. Glory and defence are combined, they always go together Isa 4:1-6. This was not the case in the restored Jerusalem after the captivity. It is altogether future. What a glory it will be when every eye sees Him, when His visible glory will be once more established in the land, from which its knowledge spreads over the earth till it covers all, like the waters cover the deep! Hab 2:14. Then they are summoned to return from the land of the North. Millions of Jews are living and suffering in the great land of the north, Russia. In that day they will return to the old homeland. They will escape out of the clutches of Babylon, the final Babylon. He calls the believing remnant the “apple of His eye.” He will guard and keep them.
Zec 2:10-12. The singing times have come Zep 3:1-20. Zion rejoices for He dwells in their midst Isa 12:1-6. Then the nations are joined to the Lord in that day, not to the Church, for the true Church is in glory, but they will be joined to Israel in the kingdom. The third vision closes with an exhortation similar to the one in Hab 2:1-20. All flesh is to be silent before the Lord. Now is the time when God is silent. The flesh speaks now, for it is man’s day. But our God shall come and not keep silent Psa 60:1-12. Then all the flesh, with its fruits, will have to be silent before Him in that day.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v1 Vision of the Man with the Measuring-Line.
Vision of the Man with the Measuring-Line.
The second vision had pictured the overthrow of the enemies of the people of the Lord. But this defeat being administered, the growth of the Lord’s Church was assured.
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v. 1. I lifted up mine eyes again, once more being in a state of ecstasy, and looked, and, behold, a man with a measuring-line in his hand, evidently an angel sent for a special purpose.
v. 2. Then said I, addressing the angel himself, Whither goest thou? And he said unto me, To measure Jerusalem, the city of Jehovah, to see what is the breadth thereof, and what is the length thereof, to get the dimensions of the city even then in existence.
v. 3. And, behold, the angel that talked with me went forth, he was removed from the scene. And another angel went out to meet him, a third angel thus meeting him who acted as interpreter,
v. 4. and said unto him, Run, speak to this young man, namely, to the prophet, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls for the multitude of men and cattle therein. It is clearly not the earthly city to which the angel refers, but a wonderful spiritual city without local dimensions, the Jerusalem of the New Testament, the one holy Christian Church.
v. 5. For I, saith the Lord, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, so that the city of God would be secure under the sheltering wings of His power, and will be the glory in the midst of her, so that His blessings would rest upon her and His name be praised within her. So much being established, the prophet is given a summary of what he should proclaim to this Church of the Lord.
v. 6. Ho, ho, come forth! so the Lord addresses His people through the Angel of the Covenant, and flee from the land of the North, out of Babylon, as typical of all powers of evil banded together against His Church, saith the Lord; for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heaven, saith the Lord, namely, in the New Testament Church which extends to the most remote ends of the world.
v. 7. Deliver thyself, O Zion, that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon, or, "Ho, Zion, save thyself!" the separation between the children of God and the children of the world being absolute, even if not local. Cf 2Co 6:17.
v. 8. For thus saith the Lord of hosts, After the glory hath He sent Me unto the nations which spoiled you, the Angel of the Lord being sent to the heathen to get back the glory which they, by their hostile treatment of His people, had taken from Him; for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of His eye, so dear are the believers, the members of the Church, in the eyes of the Lord. Every adversary who dares to touch the kingdom of God and its members thereby becomes guilty of a blasphemous act, which grieves the Lord most deeply. This insult Jehovah will not accept without the most emphatic resentment; He will punish the people, He will visit their sins upon them.
v. 9. For, behold, I will shake Mine hand upon them, swinging it back and forth over them in order to deliver a heavy blow, and they shall be a spoil to their servants, so that the latter become the lords of their former masters; and ye shall know that the Lord of hosts hath sent Me, that through Him the great Sovereign of the earth was carrying out His punishment upon the enemies of His Church. For this reason the people of the Lord are exhorted to sing praises to Him.
v. 10. Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, the Church of Jehovah, especially in the New Testament; for, lo, I come, the Messiah Himself addressing those who were longing for His coming, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord. This was so wonderfully fulfilled when the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. Cf Joh 1:14; Gal 4:4.
v. 11. And many nations, representatives of the various races and countries of the world, shall be joined to the Lord in that day, to be added to His people, and shall be My people, Eph 2:19; and I will dwell in the midst of thee, in the city of God of the New Testament, and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent Me unto thee, the great God of heaven sending His only-begotten Son for the salvation of His people.
v. 12. And the Lord shall inherit Judah his portion in the Holy Land, so that He would possess His Church, and shall choose Jerusalem again, as the place of His dwelling and of His blessing.
v. 13. Be silent, o all flesh, in a spirit of awe and reverence, before the Lord; for He is raised up out of His holy habitation, He is preparing to rise from His throne in heaven to visit the enemies with His righteous punishment and to lead His children to glory. Cf Psa 76:8-9; Zep 1:7.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 6, 8, 10, 12 I lifted up my eyes
I lifted up my eyes
The word "eyes" represents the person who looks. AT: "I looked up" (See: Synecdoche)
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measuring line
a rope with a certain length that a person would use to measure buildings or large sections of land
So he said to me
"So the man with the measuring line said to me"
translationWords
Jerusalem
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 2, 5, 6, 8, 9, 12, 13 2:1-5 The scope of the visions narrows from the…
2:1-5 The scope of the visions narrows from the cosmos (vision 1), to the nations (vision 2), to the city of Jerusalem. The vision itself (2:1-3) is followed by an explanation of its meaning (2:4-5).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.